Survey after survey reveals, when it comes to buying or selling homes on the Internet, content remains king.

First and foremost, real estate consumers who surf the realty Web are browsing for useful, factual and current housing information that will help them through an ordeal likely to cost them emotionally and financially more than any other sale or purchase.

Solid content is what draws them to a site and keeps them coming back even when they aren't in the market for a home, a mortgage, insurance or a home improvement.

Consumers also use the Web to find real estate agents, home improvement specialists, mortgages and the like, but if your Web site doesn't have the content they want, they'll take their eyeballs elsewhere -- both for content and professional assistance.

Even if your site offers award-winning agents, brokers, and contractors, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans if your content is inaccurate, thin, poorly produced, difficult to navigate, not unique or otherwise unattractive.

The latest survey released by Coldwell Banker says eight out of 10 respondents (85 percent) valued the "ability of the Internet to quickly provide potential home buyers with quality home listings and information."

It also says about three-quarters of the respondents (71 percent) believe the Internet has the potential to "match their needs and wants with the right home."

Coldwell says the national telephone survey of more than 1,000 people was conducted over two, three-day periods (Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 11-13). Respondents had Internet access and have purchased or sold a home in the past two to five years.

Coldwell says the results "strongly suggest" that consumers are doing their preliminary research on the Internet. To put it another way, before consumers seek professional help, they seek professional content.

The survey also says consumers after solid information also aren't likely to do business with real estate companies that exist solely on the Web. Only 10 percent of them would be "very comfortable" buying or selling under those terms, the survey said. That's not to say consumers wouldn't visit the site for information.

Consumers ranked a responsive sales agent as the most important service a traditional or online real estate company can provide and said the agent's experience and reputation were the two most important factors for choosing a real estate company, according to Coldwell.

The survey said 89 percent of the respondents likely wouldn't bid on a home online after having seen only pictures or video without visiting the home.

"The study affirms the two-sided approach to home ownership that Coldwell Banker has invested in: 1) Give consumers as much information as we can give them through coldwellbanker.com -- up front and at the beginning of the process. 2) Offer professional sales associates who can interpret, navigate and counsel all facets of the home buying and selling process for the consumer -- from finance options to negotiations, to services related to home ownership," says Coldwell's president and CEO, Alex Perriello.

To put that another way: If you build content, they will come.

Published: March 10, 2000

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.